


On the Town

by hhertzof



Category: How I Met Your Mother, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, identical cousins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-26
Updated: 2012-07-26
Packaged: 2017-11-10 18:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/469261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria's got a day off, but as usual, things don't go as expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Town

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moriann](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moriann/gifts).



"I'll be there, Robin. I promise. MacLaren's, noon." Maria wedged the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she tugged a pair of black jeans on. "You're sure jeans will be okay for whatever it is you've got planned?" It would have to be if she was going to meet her cousin in less than an hour.

She'd known this lunch was inevitable from the moment she'd called Robin to make sure she was okay after the Chitari invasion. Normally she wouldn't have minded, but there was so much to do. If only Fury hadn't overheard the call and insisted she needed a break, but there was no arguing with Fury at times like these, so she'd found herself agreeing to lunch and some form of non-work socializing to be named later. "Good-bye, Robin. I'll see you soon," she said, interrupting Robin's chatter. "Short of the end of the world again." It wasn't a joke and neither of them laughed.

Closing her phone, she pulled on a black tank top, repinned her hair, and turned to throw her towel into the laundry. It was only then that she saw Natasha leaning casually in the doorway. "How long have you...oh, never mind. I'm late as it is."

"I had a question for you," Natasha leaned casually against the door frame, her arms crossed. Maria had used that pose more than once herself. Maria was sure that Natasha wasn't aiming for intimidation. Well, almost sure.

"Shoot." Maria sat down to tie her sneakers. 

"I seem to have agreed to spend the afternoon with Pepper Potts," Natasha began as she sat down beside Maria. "And I have no idea what to do. What do civilians do when they're socializing? Pedicures?" Knowing Natasha, probably even her pedicures were deadly.

"Not a clue." Maria shrugged. "My dad raised me. No close female friends. I joined the army right out of high school."

"You're meeting your cousin for lunch. We could join you." Natasha sounded hopeful.

"Why don't you just let Pepper suggest something to do?" Maria stood and shoved her wallet and phone into her pockets. Robin was the most reasonable of her family but this was such a bad idea.

"Because she isn't supposed to know. Word from on high. I talk to Pepper while Fury meets with Tony." Natasha sighed.

"Pepper being the brains of the operation." Maria smiled. "Or at least the sensible one." She was starting to reconsider. It might be amusing to see Barney and Natasha in the same room. "Robin's a reporter. You wouldn't be able to discuss anything sensitive."

"We don't need to. Perhaps I should have said _distract_. I think Fury wants Tony to agree to something without Pepper around to veto it. So the idea was for me to go out with her and then some other activity to come up naturally in conversation." Natasha studied her outfit as though she disapproved. "Are you sure you're dressed appropriately?" 

Natasha would have managed to find an appropriate dress in the time allotted, while Maria had just pulled on the civvies from her gym locker. She must have a dress tucked in the back of her closet, but she wasn't going to change now.

"Robin said I was. We're probably just going to have lunch at the her local bar. Nothing earth-shattering."

"But there might be pedicures?" Again with the pedicures. 

"There might." But not if Maria had anything to say about it.

* * *

The two of them collected Pepper without too much trouble and headed uptown in a Stark limo. 

"Somehow this feels more surreal than anything else that's happened over the past week or two," Maria commented, laying back. The car had probably cost more than she made in a year.

"So you're perfectly comfortable with super soldiers and gods and helicarriers, but a _limo_ is something extraordinary." Pepper leaned back against the seat.

"I've never owned a new car." Maria shrugged. By the time she could afford one, she was working for SHIELD and didn't need one. "And I'm not Natasha, hobnobbing with the rich and powerful." She didn't understand why Natasha had been worried. It was clear that she and Pepper got along famously. She might have felt like the odd one out, but the conversation had given her a chance to text Robin and warn her. " _Bringing coworker and friend. NO PEDICURES!!_ " 

" _Nope ;)_ " Robin texted back, as though she assumed that Maria was trying to guess, but it was enough reassurance. Clothes shopping she could deal with, but colored nail polish was against uniform regulations. Natasha could get away with it, but then she was the _talent_.

* * *

As they entered the bar, Maria quickly spotted her cousin in Robin's usual booth. To Maria's relief, none of Robin's NY friends were present. It wasn't that she disliked Robin's friends, they just didn't have much in common. And while she was almost disappointed that Barney wasn't around to flirt with Natasha and Pepper, at least the bar might still be standing when they left.

"Oh, you brought some friends," Robin said innocently as she moved over to make room in the booth.

Maria quickly made introductions.

"Robin Sherbatsky of World Wide News?" Pepper asked, after they had ordered. "Nick Fury told me I should talk to you. How would you like to do an in depth interview about the clean-up? It won't quite be one on one - he recommended a British journalist, too."

Natasha and Maria's eyes met. Typical Fury Machiavellian scheming. Maria had set up a meeting with Sarah Jane Smith that very morning, but Fury hadn't mentioned anything about bringing in an American journalist too.

"Like it, I'd love it," Robin replied enthusiastically. "Thanks for setting this up, cuz." 

And now Maria remembered why she rarely introduced her colleagues to her family.

Pepper took out a business card, wrote something on it and passed it to Robin, who tucked it safely away.

"Not me." Maria threw her hands up in a gesture of surrender. "You can thank my boss, if you ever meet him. But this is supposed to be my afternoon off." And damned if she was going to let Fury use all of it. Taking time off had been _his_ idea after all. "So how have you been, Robin? How's Kevin, was it?" She knew this would get her a detailed digression on the state of Robin's social life. Which it did. Kevin was apparently out of the picture now, which didn't surprise Maria in the slightest. She'd mostly asked to change the topic.

By the time the food came, conversation turned to more general matters. The food (good), the scotch (also good). They discussed the damage to the city, of course, but even civilians would talk about that. Somehow they found enough in common to keep the conversation flowing easily as they ate, ranging from places they'd been to people they knew.

"How did you get Tony to stop flirting with you?" Natasha asked Maria at one point. "I think I may have scared him off." 

Maria smiled. "I told him no. I didn't even have to hit him, unlike Robin's friend Barney." 

Robin winced at the memory.

"Hey, he took it in good humor. And they both stopped flirting with me, at least consciously. I don't think either of them is ever _not_ in flirt mode." Her opinion of both men had increased dramatically after that, and she'd almost understood what Robin had seen in Barney. 

Pepper and Robin both laughed at this and after a moment Natasha snorted.

"So, are you two joining us?" Robin asked as they paid.

"Joining us for what?" Maria asked pointedly. Knowing Robin, it could be just about anything.

"I thought we could do a little target practice, if that doesn't sound too much like work."

Maria smiled. Trust her cousin to find a shooting range in Manhattan. 

Natasha looked ever so slightly disappointed, but she asked, "Pepper?"

"Shooting? Guns? Or arrows?" Pepper hesitated.

"Guns," Maria confirmed. "Didn't I mention Robin was a gun nut? We used to have an unofficial competition going."

"What's this 'used to'?" Robin protested. "Admittedly, she's winning, but still, I shall have my revenge." Her phone rang, and she answered it.

"This I have to see." Pepper grinned, then pulled away from the group to call the limo.

"So is this what normal women do together?" Natasha asked lightly while the other two were otherwise occupied.

"I think normal is highly overrated," Maria answered, "so why should we care?"

"Fair enough. The shooting range it is." Natasha smiled at her and the two of them followed Robin and Pepper up the stairs to the street.

If Robin thought she'd have her revenge today she was dead wrong. And this was a much better bonding experience than pedicures.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies if you don't watch _How I Met Your Mother_ but Robin worked so well with this group.


End file.
